As PlayStation 5 owners get their hands on the new Wolverine game, developer Insomniac promises to address the frosty feedback it’s received.
Insomniac’s Wolverine game only launched today so it’s far too early to tell how it’s doing sales-wise, but its critical reception hasn’t been as glowing as most of Sony’s past exclusives.
In fact, it’s one of Sony’s lowest rated first-party games of the PlayStation 5 generation and while it’s by no means a terrible game (we enjoyed its combat and storytelling), Sony nor Insomniac are likely to be happy with the lukewarm reception, especially if it translates to lower-than-expected sales.
One complaint that’s been making the rounds in the run-up to launch is how obtrusive Wolverine’s scent trail (a means of tracking objectives and hidden items) is, which has derogatorily been compared to ‘fart gas’, but Insomniac may be planning on addressing this.
Earlier this morning, Insomniac posted a launch day message on X, where it said it was already ‘engaged with our player community and gathering feedback to further refine the player experience.’
James Stevenson, the studio’s community director, followed up on this to say that he and the team have been paying attention to the criticisms the game has received.
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‘We have been 100% listening over the last few days and the team has been cooking hard today in response to some of the feedback – in case you were wondering what that smell out of our kitchen was,’ wrote Stevenson.
Although Stevenson hasn’t specified what post-launch updates Insomniac has in mind, you must imagine it will want to do something with the aforementioned scent trail.
It being labelled as ‘fart gas’ comes from The Washington Post’s Gene Park, who criticised it as something you can’t turn off, meaning the game is constantly holding your hand and guiding you to your next objective, even if you disable the navigation assist option.
Stevenson did hit back at this to say it isn’t something that’s always active and only triggers during certain story missions and whenever he ‘catches whiff of a collectible.’
Jean Grey’s fart gas trail is NOT part of the navigation assist option. i turned it on and there’s another green line that tells you where to go. mission waypoint (yellow marker) is on as well and THAT can be turned off.
2nd pic i turn off the options and the gas stays. it seems… https://t.co/XSBsGa6Xj0 pic.twitter.com/cKs9uTPSG0
— Gene Park (@GenePark) September 10, 2026
However, some have still criticised its inclusion, arguing it defeats the purpose of hidden collectibles if the game always lets you know when one is nearby. So, Insomniac may be incentivised to adjust this in an update.
Meanwhile, Wolverine’s actor Liam McIntyre is taking all the criticisms lobbied at the game on the chin, saying he’s heard far worse things said about him in his career.
‘I’ve read things you couldn’t believe. I just hope everyone has fun. I’m proud as hell of this game. It’s a blast,’ said McIntyre.
Even so, Wolverine’s less than stellar reception comes at a time when Sony’s reputation is already tanking among fans. Not only are people still upset about the company’s plan to ditch physical media after 2027, but it recently cancelled Hideo Kojima’s Physint, which will now be published by Xbox.
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